Reaping Rewards Of Helping

December 10, 2000

Frank Savastano, of Davie, has been with the Foundation for Learning for only nine months. But it has been by far the most rewarding job he has had in a lifetime of serving others.

That, he said, is because the 22-year-old organization succeeds in doing what institutions have been trying to do for years -- provide jobs and living assistance to people with developmental disabilities.

"It's called normalization and inclusion," said Savastano, the foundation's program director. "That's what we all want to do, be normal. We want to work and, the most important thing, we want to have choices in our lives."

Savastano, originally from Boston, has spent most of his 50 years helping people who face hurdles of one sort or another. After graduating from college with a sociology degree, Savastano said he worked briefly as a federal police officer before going to Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division. After his discharge in 1970, he traveled the world, then became a volunteer with VISTA, a domestic version of the Peace Corps, working with migrant families.

"I felt it was important for me to do something with my life other than stay in Boston," he said.

After VISTA, he joined an organization in Arizona similar to the Foundation for Learning and was there until 1987.

Savastano left Arizona and went to work in Massachusetts as a vocational rehabilitation counselor before moving to South Florida in 1990. Here he ended up working at United Cerebral Palsy of Broward and Palm Beach counties for 10 years before becoming a consultant with South Florida State Hospital in Pembroke Pines during its privatization.

"I left [there] because I was having a lot of difficulty with the mental health system as opposed to the developmental disability system," he said.

As Foundation for Learning program director, Savastano is responsible for the well-being of clients in the two group homes and the vocational site where they are trained. What he likes about the foundation, he said, is that it provides developmentally disabled individuals with the assistance and training they need to live as independently as possible. "I get satisfaction out of seeing people be able to choose what they wish to do, with guidance and assistance from our staff," he said.